They all pushed me!

She lowered her head again and stroked a sentence on the page.

"No matter how successful a person's career is, it is more difficult for him to have a complete family and make his family happy."

-------------------------------------

The story of "Shoplifters" is very simple. To put it simply, it is about the daily life of several people who are not related by blood and who keep each other together in a big city. The family includes Osamu (father) who does odd jobs and his wife Nobuyo (mother), "son" Shota, Nobuyo's "brother" Yusuke, and "grandmother" Hatsue. The five of them rely on Hatsue's pension insurance and live a hard life in a dilapidated bungalow. In order to supplement the family income, Osamu and his son Shota work as pickpockets, Aki works part-time, and Yusuke works as a gigolo in a brothel.

One winter night, the father and son were on their way home from a theft and they ran into Yuri, a little girl shivering in thin clothes, on the balcony where her mother was holding her.

Out of kindness, the two men temporarily took Yuri back home to avoid the cold and keep warm, preparing to send her back later.

But when Zhi and his wife sent the girl home, they heard the couple in the house scolding loudly at the door. During their conversation, they learned that Yuri was the child of the wife Bang before, so she was not loved by her father. In addition, the husband often abused his wife because of this matter, and the wife would vent her anger on their daughter Yuri, so she would lock her alone on the balcony from time to time.

After hearing that neither of them was willing to look for the lost child, and remembering the various wounds of abuse she had found on Yuri's body at home, Nobuyo, who was unable to have children due to physical reasons, softened her heart and persuaded her husband to take Yuri in, turning the family of five into six.

After this early story ends, it is the independent daily life and personal story lines of each family member.

"Scene 14, first shot, Action!"

As the clapperboard clicked, Kitagawa Ryo quickly adjusted his state, cast aside all distractions, and immersed himself in the role of [Yusuke] wholeheartedly.

The first scene is in the dressing room of a brothel, where four or five gigolos are having their faces made up by makeup artists while they play with each other's nails and complain about the weird customers they met at work yesterday.

"I haven't slept for thirty hours. That old lady is such a drinker. She drinks and then throws up. Then she continues to drink. It's really unbearable."

"Ha, you should get some sleep too."

"I want to make more money this month. It's not easy to meet someone who is generous--"

While a few people were chatting, the mama-san who pushed the door open came in and smiled as she called out the names one by one on the list on her phone:

"Kouta-san, a guest has reserved the chat room for two hours at 3:30 today."

"yeah."

The one who was called was Zou Tai, who hadn't slept for thirty hours. He uttered a weak response.

"Shunsuke-san, some customers have complained that they sometimes see you with a gloomy face, please pay more attention to this."

"……I see."

"Don't underestimate this job. Shunsuke-san has such a good face, but the sales have not increased. It really makes me feel distressed."

Different from her attitude towards Souta, Mama-san came over and held his face from behind with both hands, making him face the mirror:

"You can pretend to be stupid and ignorant all the time, Shunsuke-san, but you must not make a gloomy face or make an expression that the customers dislike."

"……I see."

Repeating the same sentence, Yusuke raised his head and tried hard to imagine the face of "Junjie" in his memory, who seemed to be always ignorant of the world and full of youthfulness surrounded by love, and then tried to imitate and reproduce him.

Off the field, Hirokazu Koreeda folded his arms and nodded, signaling the photographer to cut to a close-up.

Because blonde hair was popular among gigolos at the time, Hirokazu Koreeda deliberately added this element when designing this character. He was not afraid that Kitagawa Ryo would not be able to handle it, after all, he had seen stills from the 2.5-dimensional stage play that the other party shot with the LALALAI troupe before.

To quote Kitagawa Ryo's fans, there is probably no sense of incongruity, as if it really came out of a comic book.

The final look presented by Kitagawa Ryo did not disappoint everyone in the crew. The camera slowly moved upwards from the chin, gradually revealing his face in the mirror.

The impeccable facial features are arranged in an impeccable way, and what attracts people most is the clear and clean eyes under the slightly messy golden hair.

"Many customers will like this one of yours. Keep it like this. Maybe a wealthy customer will order it today."

She seemed to be shocked for a moment, but she quickly recovered and said this encouragingly with a smile.

However, it turns out that Kitagawa Ryo's luck is not very good. The ladies who often come to the male escort club to relax have unpleasant looks and tempers, but this is precisely the reason why they come here.

Perhaps only here can they truly feel that they are being treated as women.

Today's third customer was an unusually fat woman. She paid extra money and had Shunsuke change into a male high school student's uniform. Then, according to her request, she listened to her complaints, hugged and kissed her.

Of course, the last step of shooting used the technique of borrowing positions to block out the viewer’s movements. After all, before signing the contract for this film, Kitagawa Ryo’s agency had put forward this kind of requirement in the contract.

In fact, where Kitagawa Ryo's first screen kiss will take place has always been a hot topic among his fans, and the agency also understands that as long as the kiss is not given, this topic will continue to provide heat and traffic.

Guest number three had an erratic temper. After the intimate hug, he seemed to be provoked by something. He suddenly slapped Junsuke in the face while calling his name, and then apologized desperately.

But this action seemed to have turned on a switch in Junsuke. He gently told her that it didn't hurt at all, and it looked like he even felt it didn't matter if he was treated more violently.

This is also what Hirokazu Koreeda hopes Ryo Kitagawa will show.

The character of Yusuke has a tendency to self-destruct and has attempted self-harm many times, but what keeps him alive is actually an almost shameful desire for revenge.

Unlike other people in the family, grandma takes special care of Yusuke. She allows Yusuke to survive in this patchwork family without paying living expenses or taking on any responsibilities, but Yusuke still chooses to join the brothel and becomes a gigolo under the name of his younger brother [Shunsuke].

He really wanted to be treated roughly. The last bit of revenge in his blood was his entire dignity. In order to provide for this little bit, Yusuke would rather turn himself into another person and then use his name to obtain more shame.

So when grandma found out that the alias he gave himself in the brothel was [Junjie], she smiled and said:

"Yusuke is really a bad guy."

Hirokazu Koreeda nodded with satisfaction.

"Scene 14, first shot, passed!"

While bowing to other staff and actors to express their gratitude for their hard work, Kitagawa Ryo was preparing to take off the wig on his head.

"Don't worry, Liang, let me take a picture first."

As a result, just a few seconds after walking back to the rest area, Hoshino Ai, who had been waiting there, had already taken out her cell phone and was ready to take pictures.

"I feel like the blonde Liang does look like a gigolo."

"Ai also feels like a customer who goes to a gigolo parlor."

Kitagawa Ryo curled his lips towards the left half of Hoshino Ai's face.

Although the production staff recruited Hoshino Ai to play the role of "Guest No. 4" at that time, Hirokazu Koreeda was somewhat dissatisfied later.

Because Hoshino Ai's face didn't look like the type that would go to a gigolo club, she could receive fifty business cards in about ten minutes just by standing on the street and using Tokyo's tradition of picking up girls.

However, Hoshino Ai's eyes did make Hirokazu Koreeda a little moved. When he first designed the role of "Guest No. 4", he hoped that the actor could express extremely complex emotions through his eyes in that hugging shot.

Hirokazu Koreeda judged that Hoshino Ai's eye acting skills were acceptable, and he even believed that if she were to play the role, the effect of a single shot would be outstanding.

So after urgent thinking, Hirokazu Koreeda decided to make Hoshino Ai a little uglier, or in other words, to make her a character whose flaws can be seen by the audience at a glance.

He originally designed guest number four to be a mute with self-harm scars on his wrists. This easily relatable flaw allowed the audience to quickly understand the character.

But these still can't suppress the sense of incongruity brought by Hoshino Ai's beautiful face.

and so--

"By the way, today's makeup technology is really amazing. This scar looks really real."

"But isn't it a bit scary... I didn't expect that my first big screen role would be this kind of disfigured."

Hoshino Ai sat beside Kitagawa Ryo with a sigh. There was a hideous scar on her left cheek, which almost completely destroyed the beauty of her entire face.

Beichuan Liang propped up his head and looked at Ai who was sitting next to him. He suddenly reached out his hand and touched there with his fingers, as if out of pure curiosity. It was unclear whether he was saying the lines in the play or speaking his true feelings:

"I didn't fall in love with you because of your face."

“…What?”

Startled by Kitagawa Ryo's words and actions, Hoshino Ai quickly turned her head to see if anyone around her noticed this. She was clearly the one who brought up the topic first, but now she was in a state of confusion. Her skin, which was a little whiter than usual after applying makeup, was clearly showing a shy blush, and her mind was full of the word "like" in Kitagawa Ryo's words.

"Are you happy?"

"Guest number four can be easily handled with just one sentence. If you are happy, please remember to give me a good review."

But before Hoshino Ai's emotions could last even a minute, the snickering from the boy next to her brought her back to reality.

"This is also experiential acting. It seems that you haven't learned enough."

Beichuan Liang smiled and shook his head.

This was his little retort to the previous days.

Let me first report the results of the bounty. In the seven-day bounty, a total of 55 chapters totaling 110,000 words were owed. 14,000 words have been paid back, and 96,000 words are still owed.

I took a day off today because I wanted to take a break at the beginning of the month and reorganize my outline. I also planned to restart the update of the old book. After that, I will update the new book at a rate of about 6,000 words a day (repaying 2,000 words a day) and the old book at a rate of 2,000 to 4,000 words a day. If I have more time that day, I will update more to pay off the debt.

Thank you very much for your support.

Chapter 6: His and Their Stories (2k)

"I'm back."

After finishing a day of filming, Kitagawa Ryo just opened the door and returned home. Kitagawa Rumi, who seemed to have been waiting at the entrance for a long time, immediately handed over the indoor shoes that she had taken out in advance:

"Welcome back, brother."

"Are you hungry? I'll cook right away."

Beichuan Liang put on his shoes easily, rubbed his sister's little head casually, and walked towards the kitchen while stretching.

"It's okay, it's okay. Brother must be very tired from filming today. I just ate something to fill my stomach. There's no need to be so anxious."

Following closely behind Kitagawa Ryo, Kitagawa Rumi shook her head like a rattle and spoke with great sympathy.

"I saw it on my phone. I think your blond hair is very nice. He has the same blond hair as me."

After the cast was finalized, "Shoplifters" began its intensive publicity and promotion work. Today, it specially released stills and makeup photos of several main characters on its official account, and easily became a recent hot trend.

"nice! You love it."

Beichuan Liang just agreed casually at first, but when he turned around, he saw his sister looking like she wanted to say something but couldn't open her mouth. His mind moved slightly, and he thought of Ruby's actions in the past few months, and asked with concern:

"Ruby really still cares about this?"

"That's right. After all, I've grown up so big without realizing it."

"Eh?"

Kitagawa Rumi was originally still struggling whether or not to ask her brother about what happened on the set today. After all, after Kurokawa Akane failed the audition, she had no interest in the filming.

If Hoshino Ai wanted to do this, that, or any number of other bad things to her brother, by the time she knew about it, he would probably be squatting at the entrance ready to get a pair of shoes.

Just when Kitagawa Rumi thought that her brother had noticed her subtle little thoughts and her heart was in her throat, Kitagawa Ryo's next words made her calm down again.

"Ruby and I are not only not siblings, but we have no blood relationship at all, so we have almost no similar features in appearance, whether it's hair color or eye color."

All along, in order to take better care of Rumi, Kitagawa Ryo never told her about her own life experience, including her parents and her exact relationship with herself.

Although Rumi has never asked these questions, she must be confused in her heart. After all, if she puts herself in the perspective of her sister, she has just lived with a guy who calls himself her brother and looks nothing like her until now.

Kitagawa Rumi felt that her brother's expression suddenly became serious. She pretended to be confused and nodded, but a smug little man with his hands on his hips secretly emerged in her mind.

How could she not know about the Beichuan couple? Her brother was able to break off relations with them because of her contribution in rummaging through the Beichuan family's belongings.

Beichuan Liang felt that this topic seemed a bit cruel. After all, it was like telling a child that her biological parents were no longer in this world. So he turned around, half-knelt down, and gently held his sister in his arms, meaning that she still had him to rely on in this world.

After completing all these preparatory actions, Kitagawa Ryo explained to his sister everything about the Kitagawa couple, including that he was their adopted son, that they had hoped from the beginning to make Rumi become an internet celebrity, and that they both died in an accident.

In an attempt to ease Kitagawa Rumi's feelings towards her biological parents, Kitagawa Ryo deliberately emphasized some of their crazy behaviors, including planning to open a personal social media account when she turned one year old, so that he, as a brother, could promote his sister.

In the end, even Beichuan Liang himself felt that this rhetoric was a bit despicable, as if he was telling the child in front of him that her parents were evil and wicked people who deserved to be put to death.

He was the one who first caused the turmoil in the Kitagawa family, and the only person who was implicated in the whole incident without any fault was Kitagawa Rumi, who was just a baby at the time.

Perhaps it was because of this feeling of guilt that he chose to adopt the child after that incident.

But after taking care of her for seven or eight years, Kitagawa Ryoya has already regarded Rumi as his only family in the world.

So after confessing all this, it was Kitagawa Ryo himself who felt a little nervous, and even began to fear that his sister would become estranged from him because of this incident.

When she saw her brother acting like a puppy thrown outside, a little panicked and even begging for mercy, a strange feeling of pleasure flashed through Kitagawa Rumi's mind. She was so dazed for a moment that she didn't speak in time.

However, Kitagawa Ryoya just thought that his sister needed time to digest all this, so he didn't pay attention to her dazed look. He still maintained the hugging posture, but unconsciously increased the strength a little.

"It's okay... I'm very grateful that my brother chose to adopt me."

“My brother has always been my only family.”

After waking up from the strange pleasure just now, Kitagawa Rumi, while expressing her feelings, somehow thought of her mother. It was not Kitagawa Tomiko, but the mother from her previous life.

She still remembers that when she was first diagnosed with cell tumor, her mother said something similar to her when she took her to the hospital:

"We will definitely make sure that Sarina is cured, because Sarina is her only child."

But this memory only flashed through his mind, because Beichuan Liang's words were immediately conveyed to him. He rubbed his sister's forehead with the tip of his nose, feeling relieved, and said in a low voice:

"Ah."

"I'm also very grateful to Ruby for choosing me."